Department of Public Administration

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION AS A PANACEA

FOR INSECURITY IN NIGERIA.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1  Background of the Study

The need “to promote international peace and security” is of primary concern in the comity of nations. This need led to the establishment of the League of Nations in 1919 under the Treaty of Versailles. The same quest led to the establishment of the United Nations (UN) in 1945 after the World War II. Subsumes in the concept of global peace and security is peace and security within nations, a phenomenon referred to as national security.

National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of a nation hence United Nations (UN) made it a condition for countries in 1986 to develop and progress safely. It is for this reason, United State (US) included security as one of the country’s four enduring national interest, and it was taken more seriously after the September 11 attack in 2001 on the World Trade Centre.

Security is defined as the degree of resistance to, or protection from harm to any vulnerable and valuable assert such as a persons, dwelling places, organizations, communities, or nations. Hence, we often talk about personal security, community security, organizational security and national security. The focus of this paper is on national security.

          National Security has attracted different usages and definitions as it means different things to different people. It could connote (1) freedom from foreign control; (2) ability to preserve the nation’s physical and territory integrity with her military might; (3) capacity to control domestic and foreign conditions, and (4) absence of threats to people’s lives and properties.

There has been a general state of insecurity in Nigeria starting from the Niger Delta crisis to insurgency in Northern part of the country. This crisis with its attendant effect of insecurity started in Nigeria in the area known as the Niger Delta area, consisting of Delta, Bayelsa, River, Abia, Akwa-Ibom, Crossover, Edo, Imo and Ondo states for years where militia groups rose against the Nigeria nation by blowing up some oil flow stations kidnap foreign oil workers, vandalize oil pipe lines, and disrupt oil business generally. This crisis is attributed to greed, selfishness, deprivation, poverty, and social injustice. To stem the crisis situation, the Nigeria Government granted amnesty to Niger Delta militants; but as the government of Nigeria was yet to recover from the adverse economic effects of the militancy in the Niger Delta, a terrorist organization, Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati Wal-Jihad, known by its Hausa name, Boko Harām; figuratively meaning "Western education is a sin" emerged in the Northern part of the country, thereby opening a new wave of insurgency in Nigeria. The group exerts influence in the northeastern Nigerian states of Borno, Adamawa, Kaduna, Bauchi, Yobe and Kano. This terrorist group bombed schools, churches and mosques, public places; kidnapped women and children; raids vulnerable villages and assassinated politicians and religious leaders. The 2014 abduction of 219 female students from the Government Secondary School in the Chibok town in Borno State, Nigeria; and the 2011 bombing of the United Nation House headquarters in Nigeria nation’s capital, Abuja are cases in point. Bokom Haramm therefore is Nigeria synonym for fear and bloodshed. Unlike the Niger Delta militant, Boko Haramsect rejected the idea of amnesty. This rejection implied that the Boko Haramsect was more ready than ever to take up arms against the state; and indeed insurgency increased in the northern part of the country there after. With the Niger Delta militancy and insurgency in the North, crime wave increased in unimaginable proportion across the length and breadth of the country. The global report stated that the war against terrorism in Nigeria raised military expenditure to a staggering sum of $2.327 billion (N372.3 billion) in 2012 alone; thereby placing Nigeria among countries at war in Africa. To this extent, Nigeria is tottering towards becoming a failed state.

The later connotation is assumed in this research. In this respect, national security can be viewed as the resistance to, or protection from harm to any vulnerable and valuable assert of a nation such as persons, personal properties, dwelling places, organizations, and communities. It is the protection or the safety of a country’s secrets and its citizens. It is also the “measurable state of the capability of a nation to overcome the multi-dimensional threats to the apparent well-being of its people and its survival as a nation-state at any given time”. This entails economic security, environmental security and energy security. The elements of national security include resources, avoidance of natural disaster, and availability of food; protection of the cyberspace, healthcare, and protection of ethnic groupings.

The need to deploy Information Communication Technology to tackle national insecurity has become inevitable as crime waves have gone more digital in the Digital Age that is Information Technology driven. Information Technology (IT) is the technology which supports activities involving the creation, storage, manipulation and communication of information, together with the related methods, management and application. IT is also the use of computers and telecommunications equipment to store, retrieve, transmit and manipulate data. IT is defined as any equipment or interconnected system or subsystem of equipment that is used in the automatic acquisition, storage, manipulation, management, movement, control, display, switching, interchange, transmission or reception of data or information. In other words, Information Technology is technologically mediated information. However, extended the definition of IT to include computers, ancillary equipment, software and firmware (Hardware) and similar procedures, services (including support services) and related resources. ICTs cover Internet service provisions, telecommunications and information technology equipment and services, media and broadcasting, libraries and documentation centers, commercial information providers, network-based information services, and other related information and communication activities. Therefore, ICT is a convergence of interest between electronics, computing and communication.

There is high unemployment rate Nigeria; and the rate of unemployment between 2006 and 2012 in Nigeria is in the range of 5.3% and 23.9%. From this statistics, there is a visible upward movement trend in the unemployment rate in the country with youths’ unemployment between the ages of 15 and 24having the highest average unemployment rate of 35.9 percent[1]. This high rate of youth unemployment therefore creates a serious security challenges as the unemployed get themselves involve in all sorts of crimes like robbery, kidnapping, oil pipeline vandalization, insurgency, political tuggery, ritual Killings that threaten national security. These crimes are not only counter-productive to the economy but also posses threat to our national integrity as potential foreign investors are scared away and the country’s image is usually painted in bad light in the international world. Therefore, serious efforts must be made to minimize or completely eliminate the incidence of these crimes in Nigeria.

Counseling in a nutshell is a process whereby a professional trained counsellor helps an individual or a group of persons who need assistance to gain greater self understanding, greater understanding of the environment around him; to gain improved decision making and behavioural skills for problem solving; behave in a more satisfying manner in order to establish a perfect relationship with the people around him. Every human activity involves one form of communication or the other. Communication is tied to human existence so much that not much can be achieved without communication. It touches every sphere of human activity and informs all of man’s action because it is occasioned by his need to interact with his fellowman. Communication manifests itself in symbolic and verbal forms. It is an instrument of social interaction. It helps individuals to understand one another, keep in touch with other people, to predict people responses to situations, establish relationship with others, etc. James, Ode & Soola (1990) gave a summary of the meaning of communication as:

·        A process of transmitting thoughts;

·        The sharing and imparting of information

·        The giving of understandable information and the receiving and understanding of the message;

·        The transmitting of messages and the linking of people;

·        The conveying of attitudes, ideas and feelings;

·        The creating and exchanging of messages within a network of interdependent relationships.

1.2     Statement of the Problem

There is high unemployment rate Nigeria; and the rate of unemployment between 2006 and 2012 in Nigeria is in the range of 5.3% and 23.9%. From this statistics, there is a visible upward movement trend in the unemployment rate in the country with youths’ unemployment between the ages of 15 and 24having the highest average unemployment rate of 35.9 percent. This high rate of youth unemployment therefore creates a serious security challenges as the unemployed get themselves involve in all sorts of crimes like robbery, kidnapping, oil pipeline vandalization, insurgency, political tuggery, ritual Killings that threaten national security. These crimes are not only counter-productive to the economy but also posses threat to our national integrity as potential foreign investors are scared away and the country’s image is usually painted in bad light in the internationalworld. Therefore, serious efforts must be made to minimize or completely eliminate the incidence of these crimes in Nigeria.

1.2     Research Question

1.     How can effective communication help in fighting insecurity in Nigeria?

2.     Can effective communication reduce crime in Nigeria?

3.     What are the benefits of communication in fighting insecurity in Nigeria?

4.     How can the Federal Government of Nigeria help in fighting insecurity in neighbourhood?